“Personally, I’m starting to think this was a crime of pure impulse.
I’ve know many people in academia who don’t treat staff and lab
technicians with any respect. Basically, you’re the hired help, and
many professors and grad students will treat you like dirt under their
shoes.

“So I can imagine Mr. Clark having anger control issues, and a chip on
his shoulder, and then Ms. Le says or does something that sends him
into a rage. By the time he comes to his senses, she’s dead, and he
goes into a panic trying to hide the body. And not being very bright
(or thinking very clearly), it never occurs to him that his movements
are completely trackable from his key card and the security system.

“Right now I’m guessing he’s somehow hoping he can wake up from this
terrible nightmare. But it wouldn’t surprise if he attempts suicide
before he gets to trial.
Pure speculation, of course, but somehow I don’t think this was a crime
of passion or unrequited love.”

Michael Melton, a teacher at Red Bank Middle School in New Jersey, left school Monday morning when his estranged wife didn’t show up for work. She too was a teacher at the school, and Michael swas worried. So he drove to her apartment in Neptune City, only to find her murdered.

Police have released very few details in the case, including the manner of death. As it now stands, no one seems to know what happened to social studies teacher Jonelle Melton.

Michael would seem a natural suspect in the case. He found the body, and the couple was destined for divorce August 6. But he’s the one who petitioned for divorce, which would seem to rule out the jilted lover syndrome. His lawyer says he’s also provided DNA and is “completely cooperative… Just because a marriage has broken up doesn’t mean a
friendship does,” attorney Ron Venturi told the Asbury Park Press.

More than a dozen police and FBI swarmed the apartment building of Raymond Clark in Middletown, Connecticut last night. Clark wasn’t arrested, but police did have search warrants to take samples of Clark’s blood, hair and skin.

The 24-year-old, an animal lab technician in the building where Annie Le worked, has increasingly become the focus of her murder investigation. She was found dead in her laboratory building at Yale University. Because so few people had access to the somewhat high security structure, police seem to be quickly narrowing the pool of suspects.

The
New Haven Register previously reported that the technician failed a polygraph
test, lawyered up during a police interview and
had scratches on his chest, indicating he may have been involved in a struggle…

It was a sweet scheme — if you take out the part about how easy it would be to get caught.

Colts Neck, New Jersey social studies teacher Megan Laboy allegedly offered to give her students better grades if they’d just kick her a little money — say, $1,400 in all. The loot, she claimed, would go to charity, and the kids would get extra credit.

But according to police, the money was instead going to the charity case known as Megan Laboy. And kids being kids, they didn’t exactly keep the whole deal quiet. Though details are sparse, it appears Laboy has now been fired. She also faces a charge of theft by deception.

Under normal circumstances, the answer would be a resounding no. But a case in Springboro, Ohio isn’t exactly normal.

At age 14, Nick was convicted of raping a 13-year-old classmate. He’s since been designated a sexual predator. But his Mom says Nick isn’t a run-of-the-mill creep. He was sexually abused for years as a youngster. He’s bipolar and suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome because of that abuse. To top it all off, he also suffers from mild autism, leaving the now 18-year-old with a mind of just 13. Mom also contends shrinks have decided he’s no longer a threat to anyone.

“Talking to my son in private at night, you know he’ll sit and cry and
say ‘mom why can’t I be in school,'” she told WDNT-TV in Dayton. “I’ve been told point
blank over the phone that no matter what he was, any registration of a
sex offender cannot go to Springboro schools.”

The was something very wrong with Arris Pitmon. Moments before he hijacked an Atlanta school bus, he was caught on surveillance video at a nearby gas station acting like, well, a weirdo. Police say he then jumped through a window of the stopped bus, overpowered the female drive, and took control.
Students began bailing out the back exit. At one point, Pitmon left the wheel to chase the driver to the back of the bus. A student grabbed the wheel, but Pitmon returned to take control. He eventually lost command and the bus crashed into a field 175 feet from the roadway…

Just one of several YouTube videos wherein a teenager tells viewers how to make a soda bottle bomb. This video has no direct connection to the following story — it’s just an example of how easy it is to find this sort of thing.

An explosion inside Chestnut Accelerated Middle School in Springfield, Massachusetts has sent an Assistant Principal to the hospital and forced an evacuation. Two devices were found, but only one went off. The injured administrator suffered a “minor injury” as a result of the blast. According to WWLP Television, police are currently questioning two 8th graders in connection with the case.

The Worcester Telegramreports that the ‘bomb’ may have been a soda bottle bomb, “made from a household chemical and a soda bottle.”

Here’s the thing about soda bottle bombs like the one described in the Telegram — you can find instructions on how to make one on YouTube. For now. I have a feeling that won’t last long. Just watch the video at the top of this post to see what I mean.

I have been researching the Erin & Eric McLean case (teacher-student sex scandal turned deadly in Tenn.) for some time now and I’m interested in speaking with anyone connected to this case. I should be beginning a book project about this case after the first of the year.

I am also interested in touching base with anyone with information and/or a connection to any of the other high profile “teacher-student” sex scandals–Debbie Lafave, Pamela Rogers, Shannon Kay Hrozek, Pamela Diehl-Moore, et al–played out in the media over the past several years. My book will include a narrative analysis of many of these cases, too.

In a separate e-mail, Phelps wrote that “The McLean case exemplifies an important social problem taking place in this country today: female teachers crossing the line with their male students […] It’s an epidemic!”

This is, in essence a blog about news, and preferably stuff that’s going on right now. But here we’ve got a reputable and prolific author whom I know for a fact doesn’t just go for the clip job — Matt Phelps digs in, does his own interviews, buries himself in the story, and he delivers the goods. Writers like him will keep true crime books on the shelves as a well-defined genre for years to come.

Phelps is only beginning work on this story, and if there was ever a recent true crime story ripe for a good book-length treatment, it is the sad, strange tale of Erin and Eric McLean. It was a “high-profile” crime when it happened, but if you haven’t heard the story, read the brief synopsis after the jump…

Joel Matthew Cupp thought he was talking with 3 teen girls. Underage teen girls. The Trinity Oaks Elementary School teacher from New Port Richey, FL allegedly became so hot for his cyber-Lolitas that he exposed himself to his online friends.
As fate would have it, Mr. Cupp’s alleged junk-flashing was actually done over the Web for the disgust (and perhaps cynical amusement) of investigators from the Citrus County (FL) Sheriff’s Office.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum announced the arrest of Joel Matthew Cupp on Thursday. Cupp has been charged with four third-degree felonies: three hits for soliciting someone he thought was a juvenile over the Web and a fourth count of lewd and lascivious exhibition.
Cupp could face 2 decades behind bars if he’s convicted.
Joel Cupp’s story so far would be disturbing enough as it is, but it looks as though the good Mr. Cupp kept a blog. Normally that might not be so significant, but if Cupp is found guilty as charged, his blog might be viewed as a truly ripe example of creepy hypocrisy.
In his blogger profile, the owner of JoelMCupp.blogspot.com said he was 29, and a teacher in New Port Richey, FL. Joel M. Cupp posted a photo as well, showing a man whose appearance matches the photos published online by Tampa Bay media. If that wasn’t enough proof that it was the same man’s blog, he had this link on the side of the page: “Trinity Oaks Elementary School- The school I work at!”